How to Choose a Baby Name

Most name advice is someone else's taste dressed up as a rule. The useful part is narrower than that: a handful of questions worth answering before you commit, and a clear-eyed reading of what popularity data can and cannot tell you.

Popularity is a fact, not a verdict

Every ranking on this site is a count of real birth registrations, ordered. A name at the top of a list is not better or worse than one further down — it simply appeared on more birth certificates that year, in that place. What the number genuinely predicts is how often your child will meet another child with their name, and even that depends on where you live: the lists diverge sharply between countries, and between provinces inside one country.

Read the direction, not just the position

A name sitting at the same rank for five years and a name that climbed there in two are very different bets. The first is settled; the second is still moving, and may keep moving after you have chosen. Every name page here plots its rank across every year we hold, which is the fastest way to tell a durable name from a spike.

Say it out loud, in full, for a decade

A name is spoken far more than it is read. Say the full name — first, middle, last — in the tone you would use to call across a playground, and again in the tone you would use to introduce an adult. Check the initials. Check what the obvious shortening is, because other people will find it whether or not you like it.

Decide how much spelling you want to explain

Every unusual spelling buys distinctiveness and costs a lifetime of corrections. That is a genuine trade, not a mistake, and it is worth making on purpose rather than by accident.

Then stop optimising

Beyond the checks above, the data runs out and taste takes over. Two people who both like a name have found the answer; no ranking is going to improve on that.